1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to media content recognition and processing, and in particular to printing systems having embedded logic for audio and/or video content recognition and processing that can generate a printed representation for the audio and/or video content.
2. Background of the Invention
A conventional printer can receive documents or other data in a number of formats and then prints the contents of those documents or data in accordance with the proper format. But while conventional printers can print documents in a wide variety of formats, these printers are fundamentally limited in their ability to reproduce different kinds of media. For example, it is standard technology for a printer to produce images of static text, pictures, or a combination of the two. But because these printers print onto paper or another similar fixed medium, they cannot record the nuances of time-based media very well.
Accordingly, existing printers are not designed to generate multimedia documents, and there is no effective method for generating an easily readable representation of media content in any kind of printed format. Several different techniques and tools are available for accessing and navigating multimedia information (e.g., existing media renderers, such as Windows Media Player); however, none of these provide the user with the option of creating a multimedia document that the user can easily review and through which a user can gain access to media content.
There are many recognition and processing software applications that can be applied to audio or video content, for example, face recognition, scene detection, voice recognition, etc. But the limitations of existing printing systems described above reduce the utility of these applications. Without a paper-based or other printed representation of the processed media, the utility of these applications remains in the electronic domain. This is because the current state of the art requires a user to install and maintain these applications on a computer, which can only display the results electronically. Moreover, these applications often require significant resources of the computer, such as memory and processor speed, thus inhibiting their widespread use.
What is needed therefore is a printing system that is equipped to print time-based media without the limitations of conventional printers. It is further desirable that such a printer be able to perform at least some of the necessary processing itself rather than require an attached computer or other device to perform all of the processing.